RomanArmyTalk

Hi Caius here I recently purchased a horse hair Crest with a small amount to spare. I have an Imperial Gallic type I, brass with two tube holder on the side. I wish to take the extra horse hair and make for a lack of a better word Mini-crests on the sides of the helm. I have seen some Roman Reenactors do this in Britian, Ermine Street Guard I belive. If any one could give me pointers on how to do this I would be grateful thanks Thomas/Caius

Hi Caius
It is always advisable to look for the original sources rather than just copy what other re-enactors have done.

In this case I would have thought that feathers in the side tubes would be more appropriate than horse hair.

Graham.

Hi Graham While I dont mind feathers I just think small crests look better, Do you know a source for feathers?. Also does this mean the small crests are not accurate? Cheers Thomas

White Goose Feathers look pretty nice, especially combined with a black and white horsehair crest.

I beleive Caius is referring to this picture:

http://erminestreetguard.co.uk/Archive% ... 28_JPG.htm

Anyone know where he got the inspiration for it?

I personaly don't like these on a Roman helmet. They belong on an Austrian or Bavarian hat IMHO... I don't think the Romans knew a precursor of the 'gamsbart'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamsbart

http://images.google.be/images?hl=nl&re ... a=N&tab=wi

Vale,

Looks like the shaving brushes worn by a "centurion" in the miniseries "Masada". To me, everything that I have evidence for "looks good", but nothing does if I don't. It's a good way to train yourself to think.

Save the spare horsehair. At some point one of your buddies will need just a bit more for his crest, and you can sell it to him.

Vale,

Matthew

Hi Thomas

Off hand without any research involved I could point you to several sources for helmets with side feathers such as a number of Pompeii wall paintings, Roman military sculpture like the example of Flavinius, standard bearer of the Ala Petriana which is now in Hexham Abbey and republican era monuments. Mike Bishop also wrote an article on side feathers for the helmets worn by Legio V Alaudae giving rise to their nickname 'the larks'. There is also a discussion about side feathers in Russell Robinsons 'Armour of Imperial Rome'.

Now for side horse hair crests, well that is another story and I could not put my hand on anything about them, which does not of course mean they never existed simply that I have never come across anything myself or read anything by anyone else who has. The exceptions to this are the aforementioned helmet in the Guard which naturally I do know very well (I can not recall how they came about but do recollect that they were not worn for very long) and the helmets worn by decurions and centurions in the TV series 'Masada', not the most reliable of sources I grant you!

Wearing side feathers with a black and white front to back crest ( no evidence I know of for them either) would of course be another case of copying other re-enactors as opposed to original sources and this has already been discussed in another thread.

Graham.

There is another possibility...the triple crest as shown in this muddy picture from Chesters?


and in this thread http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... sc&start=0